Time to make this change!

Mahsroh

Morning all,

All a bit quiet at the moment and not much to report, but thought I'd check in just to keep my diary active.

Wednesday was a NSD as predicted. Thursday was with the exception of a direct debit going out that I class as a 'nice to have' therefore counts towards my disposable income.

Didn't bring sandwiches to work today so will be treating myself to a bacon sandwich mid-morning! This weekend not a huge amount planned. We have the dreaded meeting with the landlord this weekend. I'm really hoping he's not going to give us notice as that will be another expense involved in moving - although we have tentatively started looking and found a place we love (although basing this purely on pictures at the moment!). So it will be mixed emotions whatever the outcome of that meeting is.

Handover for my new tenants seemed to go okay on Wednesday. They've got the keys now so that revenue stream will start up again from next month. All good news. Spoke to them yesterday. They haven't moved in yet but plan to do so over the weekend. Always a risk that I'll end up spending a bit of money on that in the next month or two - it's not uncommon new tenants go in and uncover things that need sorting that I wasn't aware of! So I need to be wary of that.

Out for lunch on Sunday to celebrate a friends birthday so there will be a bit of cost involved there, but that's budgeted for.

All in all, since starting this diary, it's going pretty well!

Have a good weekend all.

Mahsroh

Morning everyone,

Hope you all had a good weekend.

So, our meeting with the Landlord was nothing to worry about after all. He just wanted to talk to us about a rent increase...so okay, in that respect, it's an additional cost, but one we were expecting. He's kept the rent the same for a couple of years and when you look at other similar properties available for rent in the area, we're arguably paying over a £100 too little, so no complaints about a £50 increase. So from April rent will go from £925 to £975, but we can stay... that's the most important thing. No removal costs, letting agents fees, deposits to sort.

My tenants in my rental property moved in on Saturday. I've not had chance to speak to them myself but my Dad popped round to do some brief maintenance and they seemed to be settling in nicely, so that's good.

In terms of my spend over the weekend, all good! Saturday was a no spend day - Landlord bought the coffees! Sunday we went out for lunch for a friends birthday, but my friends wife was adamant she was covering the drinks bill so it was £20 spent for food. So my total spend for last week (Mon-Sun) was £35.18 which I think is pretty good!

Mahsroh

So, small update. Because the loan is a new loan that I took out mid-January with payment to go 1st of the month, the first payment doesn't come out until 1st March, so I'm £271 better off than I thought I would be this month. So I've just split it 50/50. £135.50 gone into the ISA, £135.50 gone on the Halifax CC, and the latter means I've paid off my first 1% of the unsecured debt since starting this diary! So I've coloured in my first 'square' green on my spreadsheet! Woohoo!

Mahsroh

Hi everyone.

Happy Thursday! Can't believe we're approaching the end of the week already. My diary is starting to sound particularly dull! But thought I should post a bit of an update.

The last 3 days have all been No Spend Days which is good. Today won't be. Realised this morning we've ran out of bread at home so couldn't make sandwiches. So I'll be buying lunch today!

Had a statement from my letting agent and I'm owed about £120 for the first months rent, once they've taken all their fees etc with is more than I was expecting, so once that hits I'll probably do 50% to the Halifax card and 50% to my ISA.

Looking forward to the weekend. Going to the football on Saturday which will be the first time I've had a day out with friends since starting this diary. Will certainly be watching my spend though, more than I would have done previously!

Mahsroh

Happy Monday Everyone!

This weekend wasn't great as far as spend goes. We did have a takeaway on Friday night, then food and drinks before the footie on Saturday. My total spend for the week (Mon-Sun) was £59.03, but I'd actually budgeted £65 so was below budget, but still feeling a bit deflated really as I feel like I could have done better. The takeaway on Friday was probably the one expense I really could have gone without. Yes, I spent a bit on Saturday, but whilst I'm trying to spend less, I'm still going to enjoy myself and go the football at a weekend, but we really didn't need that takeaway!

Never mind, still on track / budget for the month.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Mahsroh

Also, forgot to mention above. Need a bit of advice....

I've had a balance transfer offer through the post from Tesco (for my existing card). 0% on balance transfers for 12months, with a fee of 2.99%. I wasn't going to go for it. I have a balance of just over £1000 on my Halifax card which I'm hopeful of paying off within 3 months so probably wouldn't cost me more than £30 in interest in that time.

However, I'm also mindful that I still have a 3400 existing balance of my Tesco card which expires in November, and I probably won't have paid that off by November as things stand. In theory, if I transfer £1000 now which will be 0% for 12months, yes it will mean an upfront cost of £29.90 but also means I can start hitting that Tesco card straight away and hit it harder before November, but at the same time, have until March '19 to clear the final £1000.

On the other hand, I'll probably have other similar offers between now and November anyway. Both Halifax and Tesco write to me almost every month with a various offers on Money Transfers or Balance Transfers.

Thoughts?

Mahsroh

Just bumping this back up to the top. Possibly needs a separate thread, but curious to get other people's views / words of wisdom re: my post above about possible balance transfer.

Mahsroh

Morning all, hope you're all well. So re: my post above..... I didn't do a separate thread in the end. reviewed it decided to balance transfer £700 to my Tesco card for a fee of 2.99%, leaving £400 on my Halifax card..... £200 of which to be paid off on payday (before my next statement) and £200 the following month, which will be subject to interest, but only 1 month, so less than the 2.99% fee. As soon as that's clear I can start hitting the Tesco card hard throughout the spring/summer.

I will have some cash flow issues in the summer with our Honeymoon which is slightly stressing me out.... Basically we're mostly paying for it via a "Wishlist" (where our wedding guests can make a contribution to our honeymoon).... The problem is, many guests will contribute around the time of the wedding (July), but we need to pay the balance in May, so my card will have to take a temporary hit! Hoping for an offer on 0% money transfers on one of my existing cards around that time. If not, I have a plan to minimise the impact / interest by borrowing from the Wedding fund (funded by parents) then putting the balance for the wedding venue (due early July) on my card so hopefully won't be exposed to interest..... or 1 month at the most.

Good week so far. Spent £2 on Monday, and have 3 NSD's since then, today looking like it could be a 4th consecutive one! Heading off up north tomorrow for Footie, but will taking advantage of the fuel card before I likely hand it back next month, so don't envisage great spends over the weekend. Overall still within my budgets for this month, so going well! Next weekends trip to London will be key. I'm stressing about it a bit, but if I leave my CC's at home I should be fine!